Page 146 of Places We've Never Been

CHAPTER 37

I walked through the wide hospital halls and rode the elevator that smelled like disinfectant down to the first floor. I hadn’t seen Skyler since I’d woken up from the nap I hadn’t intended to take. I pulled out my phone once I got outside to see if he’d texted me. Nothing.

I bit my lip as I stared at the dark screen; then I scrolled to the missed calls I’d been declining for the last three days and clicked on Willow’s name. It rang two times.

“Please don’t hang up on me” is how she answered.

“You think I’d call you just to hang up?”

“You’d have every right to,” she said.

“I’m not going to hang up.” I sat down on a bench that bordered the sidewalk.

“Do you know when I first knew you were going to be my best friend?” she asked.

“No,” I said.

“We were at school, in PE, all crammed in the gym because it was raining. The teachers were asking everyone what activitywe should do and everyone was just saying the normal stuff like homework or dodgeball or whatever. And you screamed outthe floor is lava!”

“Everyone laughed.”

“They did?” she said. “I don’t remember that part. I just remember thinking that sounded fun. And I was surprised when we didn’t immediately do it. I knew I wanted to be friends with someone who thought up fun, different ideas like that. So the next day, I found you at lunch and I never left you alone after that.”

That story, the one I’d always remembered as the moment in my life when I began shrinking myself, was the moment Willow saw me. “Why didn’t you tell me about Ezra?”

“Because I knew I was being a bad, selfish friend and I didn’t want to lose you.”

“You haven’t lost me.”

She took a relieved breath.

“But I only got you one souvenir. So there.”

She let out a choked laugh. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too.” A family walked down the path toward the parking lot, a couple and a little girl, all holding hands. I watched them until they were gone. “I bombed my interview today and Skyler is leaving tomorrow.”

“What?”

I filled her in on everything that had happened since I’d talked to her last.

“Norah, that’s awful,” she said when I was finished. “I’m glad you called, but if you only have one more night with your boy, you better go find him.”

“You’re right. See you soon.” I stood. “Oh, and don’t tell Ezra we made up. He needs to sweat it out for a couple more days.”

“I like this idea.”

“Bye.”

The RVs were in a dark corner of the lot, so I didn’t see Skyler until I was rounding one vehicle. And then I jolted to a halt. He sat on top of our RV, his back to me. I climbed the ladder carefully, not sure what state I’d find him in. The fact that he was up here voluntarily had me wary.

“Hi,” I said as I crawled across the RV toward him.

His gaze turned from staring at the windows of the hospital to me. A smile stretched across his face. “Hi. Look what I did.”

I laughed. “Are you stuck up here now?”

“No, thank you very much.”